At its Monday meeting, members of the Flanders, Riverside and Northampton Community Association briefly discussed a proposal to temporarily convert an overgrown lot behind Marta’s Deli on Riverleigh Avenue into a soccer field. FRNCA president Ron Fisher said Southampton Town recently spent $22,000 to clean up the site and hoped to see it used for athletics. READ

A group of 19 student-athletes at Shoreham-Wading River will continue their sport in college next year. The students gathered in the high school library Tuesday night for an annual signing ceremony. READ

Youth lacrosse players scramble for a ground ball in Riverhead. Parents are proposing an artificial turf field be built at EPCAL. (Credit: Barbaraellen Koch, file)

A group of about 15 parents asked Riverhead Town’s recreation advisory committee to build a multi-purpose artificial turf field for lacrosse, soccer and football at the EPCAL site in Calverton. (more…)

ST. JOSEPH’S COLLEGE SPORTS INFORMATION PHOTO | McGann-Mercy alumna LauraLynne Duffy received National All-Academic Team honors at St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn.

Former McGann-Mercy High School student LauraLynne Duffy was recently named to the 2013 women’s soccer National All-Academic Team in recognition for her outstanding performance on the soccer field and in the classroom.

Duffy, a midfielder from Cutchogue on the St. Joseph’s College (Brooklyn) women’s soccer team, was one of four player on her team to be honored. The announcement came from the United States Collegiate Athletic Association.

A junior at St. Joseph’s, Duffy played in all 16 games for the Lady Bears and started 12. The Bears finished the season 5-11.

The USCAA National All-Academic Team members must be sophomore academic standing or higher and maintain a cumulative 3.5 grade point average to qualify.

Duffy is also a member of the swimming team at St. Joseph’s. She finished third in the 200-yard freestyle in the team’s meet against Lehman Friday. She was also fifth in the 100-yard freestyle was part of the third-place 200-yard freestyle team.

Duffy graduated in 2011 from Mercy, where she was also an active member of her school’s drama performances. She took home Best Lead Actress in the Teeny Awards as a senior, one of numerous awards she won during her high school career.

BARBARAELLEN KOCH FILE PHOTO | Carrera was a co-winner of the News-Review’s Athlete of the Year Award last June.

The award is given each year to one male and female student in each state who demonstrates excellence in athletics, academics and community leadership. The 102 state winners are each entered into the national competition, where 12 students will be chosen as finalists and compete for a title on Dec. 13. The 12 finalists will be featured on ESPN and receive gold medals and $2,000 for their high school. The high school of each national winner receives a donation of $10,000.

Last month, Carrera was named one of 10 finalists for New York from a pool of 48,000 applicants. She was chosen along with John McCarthy of Corning-Painted Post West High School.

Carrera plays goalkeeper on the Riverhead soccer team in the fall. She also plays basketball in the winter and is a midfielder on the lacrosse team in the spring. She was an All-American in lacrosse last year.

Carrera has been equally successful in the classroom with a 98.75 unweighted average. She scored a 2040 on the SATs and is ranked third in her class out of 362 students. She is an honor roll student, member of the National Honor Society, the Latin Honor Society, Mentathletes and the Math Club.

She’s also president of her class and has been active working with student government to raise funds to help former classmate Michael Hubbard. At Hofstra, Carrera plans to major in engineering or pre-med.

In June, Carrera was named a co-winner of the News Review’s Athlete of the Year of the award for Riverhead.

ROBERT O’ROURK PHOTO | Riverhead junior Carolyn Carrera was selected to play on the Long Island Metropolitan Team.

GIRLS LACROSSE: Carrera picked for L.I. team Carolyn Carrera, a junior midfielder at Riverhead High School, has been chosen to play on the Long Island Metropolitan Team to compete in the 2013 US Lacrosse Women’s Division National Tournament May 25-26 at Lehigh University. Carrera is the first Riverhead lacrosse player to be selected to a team of this national significance. The tournament features high school age players representing the US Lacrosse region in which they live and play. The Long Island Metropolitan Team is selected from the best high school girls lacrosse players in Nassau and Suffolk counties. The National Tournament began in 1933 as a tournament to showcase the best post-collegiate and club women’s lacrosse players. Since that time, it has grown into one of the largest women’s lacrosse events in the nation.

Zilnicki helps Farmingdale to title Farmingdale State captured its sixth consecutive Skyline Conference Championship after defeating Old Westbury, 2-1, recently in Farmingdale. The Rams earned the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Regional Tournament. Senior left fielder David Zilnicki of Riverhead led off the game with a walk and advanced to second on a bunt single by junior center fielder Edward Bergmann. After an Anthony Alvino sacrifice bunt, designated hitter Dalton McCarthy reached on a fielder’s choice as Zilnicki scored to give the Rams (28-11) a 1-0 lead. Zilnicki also scored on Alvino’s fielder’s choice in the fifth for a 2-1 lead. Zilnicki went 2 for 3 with two runs scored, two stolen bases and two walks.

YOUTH SOCCER: Riverhead soccer showcase A youth soccer showcase will be held at the Riverhead High School boys soccer varsity field behind the Pulaski Street School on Sunday, May 19. The sessions will be from 9 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. for boys and girls from kindergarten through third grade, and from 10:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. for boys and girls in grades 4 through 6. The cost is $5 per player.